16 posts tagged “cooking”

We had nice cheese fondue for our valentines dinner and chocolate for dessert. Delightful way to celebrate again. :)

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Last night for dinner, I made a cake and soup, both with ingredients that needed to be peeled and cut.  I've been a little leary about fishing around in the drawer for the peller since I cut myself on it one day.  I peeled and cut an apple into small pieces, made a carrot into long shreds for the cake, and prepared a bunch of broccoli florets and more carrots, and minced some cloves of garlic for the soup.  All a-ok, I took care to keep my fingers out of the way as I do every time I prep dinner. 

So what do I cut myself on? Taking the butter out of the box it came in, I got a nice deep paper cut!  Wow, that's talented, isn't it?!  :P

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

That's easy - cheese.  Many of the dinners I make have at least a little bit of cheese in them, and so it would greatly impact my cooking if I had to stop using it!

This week so far, we've had pasta bake, a delicious vegetable soup that's blended and has sharp cheddar melted in, and tonight is leftover soup with baked potatoes (cheddar on top).  Tomorrow's meal won't have cheese: hot dogs/turkey sausage and cole slaw.  :)

Note: This is the second in a series of posts looking back at 2007, in some key areas of my life that were important to me. 

I cooked this year.

Food-081507

Even though I've been cooking for years, I had a very limited array of things that we ate.  A lot of boxed meals and frozen pizzas were the base foods of our diets, with a few other more special or homemade plans around them.  This year, I learned how to cook more things than the previous 5 years combined.  This came from reading cooking sites online and cooking magazines and books for inspiration. 

We got several kitchen tools that make it easier to cook - the George Foreman Grill - with different plates for waffles even - (post) and a blender that actually blends, as well as E's immersion blender he got for a gift.  New frying pans - they are purple - are a joy, too.

I have never been a big fan of vegetables, but some of the meal ideas really made for a yummy way to eat them that I wouldn't have thought to try.  I've worked with a variety of squashes, zucchini, onions, lots of broccoli, corn on the cob, parsnips, carrots, green beans, plenty of potatoes, various things with peppers, and more.  As part of an effort to appreciate the things available in the area, we went to the Farmer's Market to purchase fruits and veges locally grown.  We started spending more of our grocery shopping time in the produce section than ever before.    

Cooking meat has always been hard for me because I don't like handling it.  Since E is a vegetarian, this wasn't a big boundry for me, I just got prepackaged things or didn't eat meat in the home.  But when I think of the foods I enjoy eating out, I really wanted to try more to make some of them in the home instead, and started to learn to cook meat.  I still don't enjoy handling the meat, but I've gotten better at it.

This all meant we ate out less.  And we had specific meal plans, knowing what was going to be for which day, and planning for the freshs veges to be eaten first in the week, and so on.  Grocery night turns more into a fun trip when I have a list and a plan in hand, because it's less stressful, and that makes me happier.

All recipes

http://allrecipes...

"complete resource for recipes and cooking tips"

And I've started updating theredkitchen with the creations I've come up with.  That site has been neglected for too long, and I'm happy to see posts with this 2007 on them for a change.  I also made use of AllRecipes (profile) and their Recipe Box quite often to save lists of the things I've made or plan to make.  The Reiman magazines I receive - as well as the previous stockpile - were a big help (Simple and Delicious, Cooking for 2)

The Cake Mix Doctor

I've used several of my cookbooks this year, but Betty Crocker is still the most helpful.  Besides that, I've been making use of my Cake Mix Doctor book to think of new and creative desserts.

I haven't kept up with writing up all the meals I made on Vox like I had hoped, but I do have a pile of my weekly plans here in my office, and I'm going to use it to make a comprehensive list of meal ideas to help me in my planning this coming year.

My favorite new thing that I learned to make this year is actually making good homemade yeasty Dinner Rolls (on theredkitchen).  It takes a couple of risings, but it really takes a main dish and turns it into a meal.  Add that to some Mac and Cheese, fix up some carrots, and some sparkling cider, and I am a happy girl while cooking AND while eating (photo above from August).

Bonus, a Vox Tip: If you have a favorite recipe, add it as a link using Vox This! and put a tag for "recipe" on it.  Then you can browse other people's links tagged "recipe" in Explore.  Easy as PIE! ;)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials Book 1)

Eric's birthday is tomorrow, but we are celebrating with the family today with a big birthday party!  I told him Friday was the beginning of his birthday celebration and he keeps laughing at me.  We went out and watched the Golden Compass on friday and had Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch, and it was a really nice date.

E's mom is actually coming, because she flew up for a funeral in Walla Walla yesterday.  We're sad for the reason, but it will be great to see her, since we aren't flying down this holiday season ourselves.  Of course, as we get closer to the event, people are dropping off of the list, which does tend to happen because E's bday is so close to Christmas and people having other responsiblities.  But it will still be great, we'll have somewhere between 9-14 people I think!

I've been doing a bunch of cleaning throughout the week and yesterday, we finished up most everything.  How does dust and dirt get on ever surface of the house?!  It's sure shiny now at least.  A few weeks back, we rearranged the couches, and even though the couch sitting area is a smaller area now, I think I'm going to leave it this way even with company and hope that nobody feels like there's nowhere to sit. (we are only one chair short because it was Megan's and she needed it).

For dinner, we are going to have fabulous food.  I created this recipe for Pasta Bake (theredkitchen) a few months back when I didn't have any lasagna noodles, and have perfected it and then added a vegetarian version.  I've never made it on a bigger scale than single-service+leftover, though, so this ought to be exciting.  We'll also be having yummy dinner rolls (theredkitchen), which I love to make because they are all yeasty and fresh tasting.  And then broccoli with butter and mizithra cheese (like Spaghetti factory) and Apricot Glazed Carrots (allrecipes) or something like that - I didn't get an orange to zest. 

The Cake Mix Doctor

Yesterday's cooking prep included a new recipe for snacking on, Peppermint Cookie Brittle (bettycrocker).  This looked like an easier version of peppermint bark that I made last year because the base is cookies instead of chocolate.  We still need to break it up into little pieces, but it's done.  E picked a cake out of the Cake Mix Doctor, and Almond Chocolate cake that smelled SO good last night and I can't wait to eat it! :)

So today will involve a bunch of cooking to try and be done and ready to bake it before people start coming early to gather and play.  I'd rather not be stressing about finishing anything but the vegetables once people get her, truthfully, because that's a little more anxiety-inducing!

Along with the birthday party planning, I finished Christmas decorations, and started wrapping Christmas presents (E's mom may be able to stick a few in her suitcase, otherwise we'll bring them to the mail on Monday).  This coming week will be mostly relaxing because gifts are almost all done and just waiting to be wrapped.  And Christmas cookie baking will happen towards the end of the week to bring them for Christmas Eve with the family.  We'll go to church on Sunday with Leonard and Sarah, which really gets me in a good mindset for Christmas (speaking of which, I dreamt last night that I found an adventist church I actually wanted to attend and didn't have people who I'd rather not see at it.  I wish that was true!)

Ohhh, and E found a cable for the entertainment center downstairs to plug my iPod into.  Now we can listen to the 8 hours of Christmas music on my iPod instead of having to use the CD rotator and be limited to 5 CDs and listen to the ugly noises it makes when switching between ;)  I ripped his Mannheim Steamroller to alternate with my regular Christmas Music.  I can't help but sing along, even if my voice leans towards singing the harmony too often!

Have a beautiful day, friends!

We always divide up the cooking between all the couples in our family when it comes to Thanksgiving.  My dad gets the core things that have been cooked at their house, and the rest of us divide up the rest.

So this year, like the last few years, I'm making the following:

• Green Bean Casserole.  We are going to try something new with it this year, though, and hopefully it will be better.  We watched Good Eats: Bean Stalker where he made his own sauce instead of cream of mushroom soup, and that looked so much better.  So I'm combining the two recipes, where I'll use storebought fried onions (French's), but make the sauce from scratch.
• Corn Casserole.  E's mom usually makes this, and so we've been adding it each year too.
• Coconut Cream Pie.  This is my fav pie, besides pumpkin, so I like to add it to the pile of pies we have.  The betty crocker cookbook recipe.  I usually buy a premade crust, but this year, I'm going to try something different.  I saw the idea in my Real Simple this last time (recipe) where they took shortbread cookies and almonds and butter and made a crust that way.  It looks like shortbread cookies are really easy to make, so I'll do a batch of those, and then use some of them for the crust.  I'll bring the rest to snack on.

I'll be doing the pie today, but the other two have to wait till tomorrow morning, which is slightly stress inducing because I worry doing things right at the last minute.  But these dishes are much better when they are fresh, so that's how it has to be.  E's going to help, though, it will be okay.

Thanksgiving dinner is always fabulous, I'm looking forward to it so much.  (So much that I went and had an open face turkey sandwich last night at Boppin' Bo's, I couldn't wait for Thursday to eat turkey!)  And it should be a good day with the family, too :)

I've got a pile of recent meal lists and shopping lists that I haven't written about, but the pile was so large that it was overwhelming me, so I'm just writing up the last two weeks :)

• Corn on the cob and veggie hot dogs/turkey sausage - roasted garlic butter for the corn
• Shells and Cheese (like theredkitchen: Macaroni and Cheese), dinner rolls (2nd try of allrecipes: Unbelievable Rolls, with cheese and leftover garlic butter), and butternut squash (from Farmer's Market)
• Crepes with cream filling (allrecipes: Creamy Strawberry Crepes), but with apples (allrecipes: Apple Cinnamon Syrup), with Hashbrowns on the George Foreman grill with some swiss melted on top.
• Uncle Randy Nachos (family favorite with a mix of hamburger and refried beans on top of corn chips with cheese and green onions (olives for E)
• Bow-tie pasta with Alfredo sauce, served with grilled chicken/grilled vegemeat and steamed broccoli - the alfredo sauce recipe was one Sarah had suggested (allrecipes: Chicken Fettuchini Alfredo), but modified a bit with the chicken done separately, so I started out with more garlic and no onion/mushrooms, and colby rather than colby jack.  DELICIOUS.
  
• Baked Potatoes with broccoli and carrot alfredo for E/cheese on mine, with an acorn squash
• Fajitas with grilled red peppers and onions, rice, beans for E and Chicken for me
• Baked Potato Soup (theredkitchen) with breadmaker bread

Definitely click through to some of the recipes if you are looking for inspiration.

We planned our meals last week around potatoes being on sale and the alfredo recipe  we knew would be more than we could eat one night (I ate it for lunches a few days too).

This coming week, I have another dentist appointment with multiple fillings, so I'm trying to paln some meals that are going to be soft for the few days after that :)

While my meal choices in the last few weeks haven't been quite as innovative as the last update, I've still been having fun with cooking.  This isn't in order, and I'm thinking I'm missing a few things.  We definitely have been eating in more than out.

• Big giant salad with veges and chicken for me and Hawaiian rolls on the side.
  
• Hamburgers (Griller for E) on the grill with basil garlic fries alongside.  I just posted the modified fries recipe on TRK :)
• Stir-fry with peppers, carrots, snow-peas, and broccoli, tofu marinated in teriyaki sauce, and pineapple, all on rice.  I added a bit of chicken marinated in teriyaki to mine.
• Spaghetti and broccoli, with meat sauce and mizithra for me and olive sauce for E. 
  
• Homemade Pizza on the pizza stone.
• Waffles on the grill (from the george foreman cookbook) with an apple sauce (from allrecipes) on top (yes, for dinner)
  
• something-like-lasagna for me, with ravioli for E.  I didn't have lasagna noodles so I tried with macaroni and the leftover meat sauce and a bit of white sauce with nutmeg and multiple cheeses.
• Fried Chicken soup (family favorite, on theredkitchen) with a baguette

I've had a couple of good lunches - the previously-photographed chicken salad sandwich, and a lot of veges and fruit meals including a day where I lightly grilled a small zucchini and multiple meals with cantaloupe (the ones with stripes are NOT as good as the regular ones, IMO)

My sweet treat on the "baking" front for last week was poop-drop cookies.  I say "baking" because they are actually no-bake cookies.  I like them a lot, E's always more for Chocolate chip cookies, but periodically, I have to make these.  Leonard and Sarah both lucked out at visiting around the day I made them and got to steal a few; this is a family favorite!  We also did a few smoothies throughout the other meals, our new-ish blender is super duper for smoothies.  And then we've tried grilling pears a few times now too - with brown sugar and seasonings in the core area and a jam glaze on top.  I need to write that one up still, but I keep improvising and not measuring!

When we have gone out recently it's been for good healthy food (Subway and Sweet Tomatoes).  Although every meal we've cooked hasn't been the ideal perfect health food, we are trying much harder, and that's going to really be good in the end, I do believe.

I'm working on my grocery for tonight now, so it was a nice chance to look back at the recent meals to see what we've had that's been good and try to think of more new ideas along with normal things.  I'd really like grilled polenta again like we had the first week we had our grill, that was really good.  We'll see how my list goes!

I've been doing a lot of cooking the last two weeks.  Here's some of the more notable dishes:

• Spinach Casserole (family favorite, on theredkitchen) with Broccoli and Mizithra (ala the Spaghetti factory's great side dish)
  
• Corn on the Cob and Hawaiian Cheese Bread (from Simple and Delicious) The corn was a little tough, I need to get Sarah's tips on cooking corn apparently. ;)  We also did a pina colada smoothie to be on the hawaiian theme.
  
• Pita bread sandwiches (sliced Turkey sausage for me, Tofurky Italian sausage and muffuletta, an olive spread from Simple and Delicious, for E).  
  
• Burgers (chicken breast in lemon pepper marinate for me, garden burger for E) with grilled Potatoes (lightly oiled and a little fresh ground pepper)
  
• Polenta with fresh mozerella and basil, along with an array of grilled vegetables (green peppers, zucchini, carrots, parsnip, all slightly oiled with olive oil that had garlic soaking in it)

Of course, we've had other more simple and less healthy things in between and eaten out as well (the trip to CA was in between these two weeks). 

The Cake Mix Doctor

I also made a delicious cake last week - Butter layer cake with sweet lime curd from the Cake Doctor cookbook.  It was a little more work to make the lime curd, but it was SO very good.  I was inspired by the orange cake that E's mom made while we were in CA.  I probably should have made a half batch because it's a huge cake.  Luckily, it's lasting well even after 5 or so days!

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1 comment

My goal is to find more vegetables and fruits that I enjoy eating and creating meals around them.  I'm not trying to complete turn around everything all of a sudden and loose a gazillion pounds, just make baby steps towards the right behaviors to start, and that doesn't mean cutting cake out of my life ;)  It does mean continuing to cut back the bad things and making smarter choices.

Added: This was the post I was writing during the power outage yesterday, luckily I didn't loose it and I realized the problem when it timed out uploading the cake pic!  Last night's dinner was Quesadillas on the grill and Green Chile Rice (theredkitchen), but with lowfat cottage cheese+lemon juice instead of sour cream, and it was really just fine that way.  Tonight, we'll go shopping again and hopefully I'll have a good list of things I want to make for us to shop for by that time :)